Bloomberg Hires a Founder of The Verge to Lead Online Initiatives

By RAVI SOMAIYA

July 24, 2014

Josh Topolsky, the co-founder of the technology website The Verge, will join Bloomberg as the editor of a series of online ventures it is introducing as part of a revamped journalism strategy.

Mr. Topolsky will start Aug. 4, and will report to Josh Tyrangiel, the editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, and Justin Smith, the chief executive of the Bloomberg media group and the architect of a plan to reposition the company as a multimedia destination.

“I think Josh is an amazing entrepreneur,” Mr. Smith said. “He has been more successful than anyone in building new digitally centered brands.”

Mr. Topolsky, who was the editor in chief of the technology site Engadget until 2011, helped to found The Verge, and was one of the creators of its parent company, Vox Media. He will develop and run Bloomberg’s new ventures, which will cover specific topic areas like politics and luxury.

“The potential is massive,” Mr. Topolsky said of his decision to take the job. “They have the resources and the technology. It’s an opportunity to build a 21st-century media company to scale.”

Mr. Topolsky will be replaced at The Verge by Nilay Patel, its former managing editor, now the acting managing editor of Vox.com. Dieter Bohn will become executive editor of the technology site.

In joining Bloomberg, which had been viewed as a lucrative but not necessarily cutting-edge destination for reporters and editors, Mr. Topolsky is bucking the trend of young, web-native journalists leaving established media brands for smaller, more nimble start-ups. Those include Ezra Klein, formerly of The Washington Post, who moved to Vox Media.

“They’re very different companies,” Mr. Topolsky said, “with very different challenges and goals.” He added, “Right now all I see is this huge potential and huge resources to build unbelievably strong brands.”

Bloomberg, which relies on its financial information terminals for a large percentage of its annual revenue, has recently hired other prominent journalists. In May, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, political reporters known for detailed, gossip-filled books like “Game Change” and “Double Down,” joined to start a new site that will focus on American politics and policy.

Though there will most likely be further big-name hires in the future, Mr. Smith said that Bloomberg would now focus on “doing tons of things in the trenches,” including building new video and web products.